Blood Scope
by catfoxy
Summary: It was supposed to be the team's day off. But when deadly bullets start to rain down on them from above, they need to think fast to get themselves and dozens of innocent civilians out of the town square alive...


_Author's Note:_

_Before I continue with "What a Tangled Web", I really wanted to get one other story out of the way. It's been bugging me for a few days. And I know I'll never get my mind back on that other story if I don't write this one down first. So…here is it is. LOL _

_It's a one-shot. It's pretty long. But I can promise you a surprise or two down the road of this story. So don't *ever* think Ethan does anything in here without good reason. The man knows _exactly_ what he's doing. Trust me. :o)_

_P.S. It's not beta'd, so any mistakes are mine. And I'll defend them to the death. ;)_

_Summary: _

_It was supposed to be the team's day off. They were on their way to a movie theatre. But when deadly bullets start to rain down on them from above, the choice of what movie to watch becomes the least of their problems, as they need to think fast to get themselves and dozens of civilians out of the town square alive._

**Blood Scope**

It was official. This was gonna be the best day. Ever.

Because Ethan was paying.

No one could really remember _how_ that had come about. But once Ethan himself had confirmed it, before witnesses, no less – and Jane had taken names – the whole team had begun making plans, and to hell with the expenses.

Brandt had opted for the theme park special. Benji wanted them all to go to the movies together. Some new horror flick was showing, he'd said. And Jane…Jane had put forward an idea that had made even Brandt and Ethan, two of the most dangerous and fearsome agents of the whole IMF, cringe in panic. She wanted to take the guys shopping.

In the end, the decision came down to sheer numbers:

Brandt was caught on his way out the door by the Secretary, who told him he needed to go on a last-minute special mission, something that required Brandt's expertise as a former chief analyst. The out of town mission would only take a few of hours, but it was enough to turn Brandt's theme park idea into a moot point. In fact, as he hurried out the door to catch a last-minute flight to Dallas, Brandt told them that he was officially withdrawing his vote, but he would meet them later for whatever else they came up with.

That left two guys and one lady to make a choice. Which thankfully were still enough male votes to ensure the guys a win in the fair ballot _against_ the shopping trip.

Hence, the choice came down to a trip to the movies. Benji was delighted.

It was now shortly after 5pm. In the late-afternoon summer sun, Ethan, Jane and Benji had decided to walk the short distance from their favourite coffee place - where they had spent the past two hours with joyful chatting - over to the movie theatre down the street. They were taking it slow, casually strolling down the sunny sidewalk, because they still had some time to kill. Brandt had called them earlier to let them know his mission had gone well, and he would be able to join them in time for the 6pm showing.

Since Brandt wanted to meet them directly at the cinema, they took their time so as not to be there too early. As they walked, Jane was still nursing her coffee, while Ethan and Benji were joking about how dangerous this day could have become, had they actually been forced to go shopping. Jane took the ribbing in stride.

She was just about to take another sip from her coffee, and ask the guys what was so fearsome about an afternoon in a shopping centre, when something suddenly made her instinctively duck – in a move so quick it let her coffee go flying.

The sound hit her the moment she realized what it had been.

A shot had been fired.

And it wasn't just one shot. A whole volley of bullets was suddenly raining down from somewhere above, hitting all kinds of objects on the sidewalk around them. The whole plaza was suddenly under attack. Trash cans, mailboxes, windows...

And people.

People were starting to get hit.

Jane could see people stumbling, screaming and running. Some went down, frantically trying get back onto their feet, or crawling towards safety, while others … others went down and didn't move again.

Beside her, Benji and Ethan had also reacted, instinctively ducking low, dropping to their knees and instantly checking for the source of the shots. But they couldn't see the shooter.

But they saw people getting shot. And it were more people by the second.

They needed to do something. Help get those people to safety.

Catching Ethan's eye, Jane made a signal with her hand, getting an instant reaction from Ethan. He, too, had the same idea. And with a similar nod towards Benji, they each picked a target.

Jane had spotted two men relatively close to her, who were desperately trying to hide behind a slim tree. But just as she was getting ready to move, she suddenly saw a panicked kid come running from the opposite direction, followed closely by another smaller child – both were unknowingly headed straight for the kill zone. For a second, Jane wanted to change directions to help the kids, but she saw Ethan already on the move, as he called out to her and Benji:

"Go!"

Ethan's team set into motion. Seeing that Ethan was headed for the kids, Jane quickly refocused her attention on the two men by the tree. With quick spurts from cover to cover, she finally reached her goal, and she was then able to lead the two men from behind the tree to a better hiding spot, before she quickly took cover again herself behind a nearby arrangement of brick flower tubs.

Benji had meanwhile taken a zick-zack course along the edge of the square to go help a woman out in the open, who was writhing on the ground. He quickly dragged her out of the line of fire. Out of the corner of his eyes, Benji could see Ethan racing past him across the square in an attempt to cut off the kids' path. And he was moving fast.

From Jane's new hiding spot, which gave her a slightly better view of the roofs across the street and a perfect view of the square before her, Jane could see Ethan successfully intercept the path of the two kids. Without even slowing down, Ethan grabbed the small girl around the hip, picking her up in a swift move with one arm, while with his other arm he reached to get a hold of the young boy, as well.

The boy, however, appeared to be too panicked to realize that Ethan was there to help him. Frantically the kid shook off Ethan's hold on his jacket, and skidded past Ethan in a half-circle. The young boy made it five feet. Then he was cut down by a stray bullet.

Tightening his grip around the small girl in his arm, Ethan did the only thing he could do. He focused his attention on getting the girl out of this alive. And, frankly, they really couldn't stay in this spot. Everyone around them was either running, hiding or already dying. Bullets kept striking the ground, none well-aimed, but it could only be a matter of time until another one of them would hit.

Making it a few feet back the way he came from, Ethan quickly changed directions again as he saw another burst of bullets suddenly hitting the pavement right in front of them. Whoever was doing the shooting – and no matter how aimless the shooting had been so far – the sniper now seemed to have zeroed in on Ethan and the girl.

As more bullets began to bite into the ground just inches behind his feet, Ethan quickly pulled the girl down with him, shielding her with his own body as they dove behind a nearby, medium-sized mailbox. It was meagre cover, but it was the only cover near enough to wait out the salve of deadly lead that was mowing past them. As soon as it was through, Ethan struggled back onto his feet, pulling the kid up with him.

He was now headed towards Jane's hiding spot. And dodging erupting splinters of pavement and bullets flying through the air, Ethan was definitely coming in hot. Jane did her best to give him cover fire, sending round after round towards the probable location of the shooter to give Ethan a chance to make it to safety.

Just as she felt Ethan come to a sliding stop somewhere behind her, within the small safety zone provided by the row of sturdy flower tubs she had chosen as cover, Jane thought she saw a glimpse of the shooter on the roof. And from what she had seen, they guy was reloading. Keeping her eyes on the spot, she called out to Ethan:

"Ethan, we gotta get out of here, this is a shooting gallery."

She waited for Ethan's reply.

When he failed to respond, she quickly glanced over her shoulder, to look down to where he was crouched next to her. He was breathing heavily.

'Well, he was running pretty hard out there…' was Jane's first thought.

Then she happened to glance down at his left shoulder, where his black shirt seemed to be just a little darker than before. It was shimmering wetly.

'Oh shit.'

"Ethan, you're hit!"

Okay. That was probably the understatement of the month. As Jane looked even closer, she saw that not only was Ethan bleeding, he was bleeding _badly_. The dark colour of his shirt had merely hidden the worst of it at first.

"Don't worry, I'm alright."

Ethan was clearly having a hard time catching his breath, and not just due to the mad dash he had made to get here. But his voice was deliberately steady. Jane wasn't sure whether Ethan was just putting up a good front, or if he really was ready to go on. She had never been able to tell with this man. She sometimes even wondered if Ethan himself was able to tell the difference anymore.

Jane's inquiringly raised eyebrow seemed to be asking Ethan: 'you are aware that there is a bullet in your shoulder, aren't you?'

Ethan's only reaction was a look that was clearly saying 'Yeah? Well, let's not talk about that right now, okay?'

Out loud, Ethan concluded the conversation once and for all by stating:

"We gotta help these people first."

And that was that.

Before she could analyse Ethan's condition any further, he was already covering any other potential signs of weakness by reaching one hand inside his jacket, to pull out his own gun. Moving carefully upwards with his back still to the tub, Ethan then risked a glance over his shoulder to peek above the low cover, squinting at the roof line across the street. He also checked for Benji's location.

Spotting their friend on the other end of the square behind a row of strong-back park benches, Ethan gave a relieved sigh. Jane meanwhile spared a glance at the terrified girl hiding just behind Ethan. The kid was frozen, and no longer reacted to anything around her. She had obviously retreated into her own little world, waiting for the madness around her to stop so she could come out again.

Another crack hit the pavement close-by.

"The bullets are getting closer," Jane realized grimly.

Ethan noticed it, too.

Their cover, as solid as it was, was not necessarily the safest place to stay. If the sniper moved his location just a little, changing his angle of attack, he would be able to pick them off like ducks on a shooting alley. Which meant they couldn't stay where they were. Especially not with the kid.

Ethan's eyes narrowed for a moment as he took in their options. Then he seemed to come to a decision.

"We're gonna have to take the guy out."

But just as Jane wanted to ask him how they were gonna accomplish that particular trick, she realized Ethan wasn't even looking at her anymore. He had merely been thinking out loud, and the expression on his face told her that he was already putting some kind of a plan together in his mind.

She was curious to hear what he had come up with. Still, never would she have expected what happened next.

"Benji!" Ethan hollered out. Jane almost flinched when she heard how Ethan didn't even _try_ to keep his voice low.

"Yeah?" came a vague reply from somewhere across the square, where Benji was still hiding behind the row of benches.

"Remember Bogotá?" Ethan called out next.

The silence on the other end lasted a moment; until a half-loud, but still very much audible 'oh crap' told Ethan that Benji had heard him. And that Benji _did_ remember.

Jane looked at Ethan questioningly.

"Do I want to know?"

Ethan looked Jane right in the eye, and for a moment he actually seemed to be debating whether to tell her. Half a second later, however, he grimaced, when he realized what her most likely reaction would be if he told her. So he just smirked at her with a half-optimistic smile:

"Uhm..no?"

Jane resigned herself to the fact that if Ethan didn't want to tell her, she would probably never find out. Her best option was to just trust in him. It had worked in the past. She was hoping it would also hold true for the present.

"Alright, what do I do?" Jane surrendered with a sigh, while at the same time letting Ethan know that he better planned to include her in his plan.

Ethan glanced over his shoulder once more, scanning the area before them as if he was looking for something specific, and his gaze kept flickering between the square and the part of the roof where he thought the shots had come from. After a moment, he seemed to find what he was looking for. With an imperceptible nod, he switched places with the girl on his left, cautiously handing her over to Jane, so the girl would stay close to Jane.

Ethan was now on the far left edge of their safety zone, with Jane and the kid a few feet off to his right side. After another quick glance around the edge, Ethan began to pull some more magazine clips out from under his jacket. He slid all but two over to Jane, signalling her to use them for her gun. He then pulled a second, smaller gun from a hidden ankle holster.

For a moment, Jane almost felt like asking Ethan what he had been thinking, taking that kind of armament to a simple cinema evening. But considering the way this day had turned out, she couldn't help but appreciate Ethan's obviously deeply ingrained principle of 'always expect everything' when it came to combat readiness.

She then watched Ethan check both his guns, sliding fresh magazines into each one. The first gun was his trusty Beretta, the one that she had seen him shoot both with accuracy as well as at long range. His backup gun was a decidedly smaller one, and most likely not very precise at long range, but a good second weapon if you needed additional firepower.

She assumed he wanted to use both guns together to suppress the sniper's fire.

So she couldn't have been more surprised when she suddenly saw him carefully put his Berretta away again at the small of his back, where it was then safely hidden by his jacket. As he sat up with only the small backup gun in his hand – a gun she had never actually seen Ethan use before - Jane looked at him like he had lost his mind. He didn't appear to even notice. Instead he gave her his final instructions.

"Alright, as soon as I move out there, I want you start shooting and whatever happens, don't stop," he looked at her to make sure she was listening closely, "Aim at the roofline up there, regardless of whether you hit anything or not. Just try to keep his fire off me, okay?"

Jane, for her part, looked at him like she wanted to call the whole thing off. He had to be kidding. To go out with that peashooter. The man was nuts!

But then she caught herself. Ethan had to know what he was doing. She hoped.

"Alright," she cautiously acknowledged his plan, although frankly, she still had no idea what _exactly_ Ethan's plan really was.

But apparently Benji knew. And since both Benji and Ethan were alive now, it must have worked at least once before.

Only Benji's earlier statement of 'oh crap' had her worried a little bit….

"Ready…?" Ethan quickly brought her mind back to the here and now. The sniper's fire had died down during their little chat, lacking fresh targets, leaving them in some kind of eerie calm before the storm. But Jane knew, as soon as Ethan stepped out there, the shooting would start again.

"Yeah," Jane nodded, although her confirmation sounded anything but sure.

A last, quick smile from Ethan was her only comfort, as she saw him get to his knees, ready to move.

"Alright. Here goes…." Ethan inched closer to the edge of the tub.

"Now!"

And then he was off.

In one fluid motion, he slid out from behind the cover of the flower tub, and faster than she had ever seen him run, he was moving across the square with almost cat-like grace. She instantly set up some cover fire, while she tried to keep an eye on him at the same time. Benji was now also firing from behind his bench.

And so was Ethan. The moment he had left his cover, he had started shooting in the direction of the sniper. But something in Ethan's stance - just like his choice of weapon – made Jane wonder once more if he was actually trying to hit anything up on the roof.

'He's not even aiming!' she realized in shock.

With a frantic glance, she looked past Ethan to see how Benji was reacting to this. She saw Benji's head pop up behind the benches every other second, his gun squeezing off several shots every time he was up. Just now he was popping up again.

Ad then it happened.

Ethan tripped.

He had obviously taken a hit straight in the right shoulder. She could actually see the blood spray when the bullet slammed into him. As he went down hard, the gun that he had been holding in his right hand fell from his fingers in a sharp arc, landing several feet away from him. He landed roughly on his ribs, with one arm angled at his side, the other awkwardly pinned beneath his body, as he came to a rest on his stomach. He didn't move again after that.

Almost instantly, the sniper on the roof ceased his fire again, as he saw that he had successfully taken down his latest target.

Jane was close to panic.

'Damn, Ethan…what the hell were you thinking?' her mind frantically tried to understand what just happened, as she saw the motionless Ethan lying out there in the square.

But then she saw something else out of the corner of her eyes.

Benji.

His head had just popped up again behind the bench. And he was giving her a thumbs-up.

'What?'

She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Ethan had just been _shot _and for all she knew KILLED by the sniper; and Benji was giving her the 'all okay'?

Wait.

Benji wouldn't do that.

Not unless, he knew it really WAS okay.

She narrowed her eyes, trying to squint in order to see what Benji was doing over there. That's when she realized he was pointing at his gun.

'Benji, what are you trying to tell me? I don't understa-'

And suddenly she did.

It was Benji. Benji had shot Ethan.

'Why on earth did he do that?' was her first reaction to that realization. But before she could think about it any further, Benji suddenly started firing again. And this time, he was firing like there was no tomorrow.

It was like Benji didn't even care that he was practically shooting off all his ammo. In fact, he seemed to be making it a point to shoot with everything he had. That's when Jane remembered the extra ammo Ethan had left behind for her.

She didn't know what good this was supposed to accomplish now, but seeing how Benji was giving it his all, she took his sudden trigger-happiness as her cue to add her firepower to his obvious efforts - whatever they were aimed at. Within seconds, the both of them were really putting the pressure on the sniper. Not that they were hitting him. But he was definitely getting their message, if his angered hail of bullets was any response to go by.

And then Jane saw something that no one else, least of all the sniper on the roof, had taken any notice of in all this shooting.

Ethan was moving.

Very, very slowly.

She could see his right arm, the one that had been pinned under his body, slowly moving out from underneath himself to his back, until his hand slipped from sight again and under the hem of his jacket. And just as slowly, he was pulling something from his belt.

'His Beretta!" Jane realized, as she kept firing at the roofline.

Ethan, in the meantime, had let his gun arm – with his gun safely in hand – come down at his side, slowly pushing it forward along the side of his body, until the gun itself was once more safely hidden from view under the side of his face.

As she and Benji kept up their distraction – for that's what Jane had come to realize their bullets were meant to be – Ethan cautiously began moving his right hand again, until it came to rest just inside the crook of his left elbow. It actually reminded Jane of a miniature version of a sniper's triangle.

Still, she kept firing. So did Benji.

But she also kept watching Ethan, who was now slowly angling his gun on his left forearm, imperceptibly aligning his eye with the scope of his gun.

Not one person in the square or anywhere near-by was watching him.

Except for Jane.

So she was the only one who saw the trigger finger on his right hand slowly start to tense.

And just as Benji's ammo ran out, she heard one more shot crack across the square.

After that there was a sudden and complete silence.

No more shots from Benji, who had run out of ammo. No more shots from her, either. And no more shots …from the roof across the street.

"Benji?" Jane hesitantly called out across the square.

"Yeah?" Benji sounded as cautious as she was, not trusting the peace just yet.

"The shooter, can you see him?" Jane called out again.

Benji slowly peeked out from his hiding place, craning his neck to see the roof. Slowly, he rose from behind the bench, always ready to jump right back down.

But there were no more shots.

Jane was now coming forward as well, softly telling the girl at her side to stay put for now, whatever happened.

But like Benji before her, Jane was now able to move without getting shot.

And as soon as she was sure that no further shooting was going to take place within the near future, either, that's when she began moving in earnest. Right towards Ethan.

"Ethan!"

"Here…," a low voice from the ground answered her, as she reached Ethan. He did, however, not make a move to get up.

"Ethan, what the hell were you thinking?" she almost felt like hitting him, when she saw that now both of his shoulders were bleeding.

"That it's …gonna hurt. And.. it did." Ethan whispered softly, as he tried to move his head to look at Jane.

"Well, you should have thought about that before you let Benji put a bullet in you!" Jane said just as Benji came running over to them.

Benji, for his part, tried to not squirm at the icy look he got from Jane for actually having complied with Ethan's plan. But Ethan quickly came to his rescue:

"Just for the record…," he coughed softly, but then he was able to continue, "I'd rather take Benji's bullet over a sniper's bullet every day of the week." Jane's still doubtful look made him elaborate.

"It's less permanent…" Ethan grimaced as a new wave of pain hit him, "…and it was necessary."

No matter how much Jane wanted to strangle Ethan for what he had done, she couldn't ignore the truth in his words. She could see now how the plan really _had_ required Benji to shoot Ethan – _safely_, if that was even an adequate term in that context – to take Ethan out of the sniper's focus and thus give Ethan the chance to take the guy out from an angle that no one else had.

Still, if she had known beforehand…

Benji, in an attempt to go off Jane's immediate radar, had meanwhile fished out his cell phone to call in some IMF backup. The sirens of regular police forces and ambulances could already be heard in the distance. Somebody else must've given those boys a call, as well.

On another bright note, Benji was also able to help with a little family reunion. Once he realized that one of the women who had been stuck on his side of the square was actually the mother of the girl that Jane had hidden behind those flower tubs, he had quickly brought the two back together.

As he saw the tears well up in the mother's eyes, Benji quickly left the two their space, as he hurried back to his own 'family', to check on how Ethan and Jane were doing.

Jane was just folding up her jacket to put it under Ethan's head to make him more comfortable. She had also taken the time to check his wounds, which, while nasty, didn't look like they were life-threatening. The initial hit from the sniper had been a lucky shot, bleeding like crazy but it hadn't hit anything vital. And Benji, well….Benji apparently had paid attention during his field training, when they taught the difference between kill shots and safe shots.

Considering these mitigating circumstances, Jane came to the decision that she would let Benji live. This time.

She was just about to tell Benji the good news, when she happened to glance past Benji for a moment, incidentally spotting someone who was still about a block away, but that someone was quickly hurrying towards them.

'Oh boy….'

Jane closed her eyes for a second, and then she opened them again to look down at Ethan.

"Uhm, Ethan, I think you better consider fainting in the next twenty seconds, if you value your life."

Ethan looked up at her with frown.

"Why?" he asked cautiously with a decidedly slurred voice, but so far he was hanging on to consciousness.

Jane was more than happy to enlighten him:

"Because I can see Brandt coming up about a block away from here, and he looks like he _really_ wants to know how we managed to find ourselves this charming little battlefield without letting him in on the fun."

"Ohhh…" and with that groan, Ethan actually did faint.

If it was from the final accumulation of pain, or the feeling that he was no longer needed for the remainder of this discussion, or maybe even just one heck of a great sense of timing on his part, Jane didn't know. Benji, however, looked like he wanted to be able to do the same. Only he didn't have any bullet wounds to use as an excuse. So Jane simply smiled at Benji with a 'you are so dead' smirk, as she concentrated back on taking care of Ethan.

Which left Benji the soul target for Brandt's shout, as their fellow agent approached them at a run.

"What the hell happened here?" Brandt called out to them even before he had fully come to a halt.

Behind Brandt, several cops and medics were just starting to swarm the square, taking care of the wounded people and other victims; Benji could even see a SWAT unit heading out to check up on the sniper's position on the roof.

"Benji?" Brandt asked again as he failed to get an answer, and this time his voice held a tone of anxiety.

Benji quickly looked towards Jane for help. He saw that she was already busy reporting Ethan's injury to the medic who had just arrived with them. Benji was starting to get the feeling he was the only one left who wasn't either unconscious, busy or otherwise unavailable.

"Benji!" Brandt was now staring right at him, forcing Benji to return his look, as he asked once more, slowly, "What. Happened. Here?"

Benji knew he was a dead man. Or he would be, as soon as Brandt was done with him. To manage to let your team leader get shot – that was one thing. But to actually be the one who _did_ the shooting at your own team leader – that had to be a punishable offence in any team. Oh well, he never thought he'd live forever. So Benji resigned himself to his fate.

And since he actually had no idea where to really start, he simply began by asking Brandt:

"Hey, uhm, Brandt... you ever been to Bogotá?"

The End.

_Author's Note: _

_Yay, you did it! I know it was long, but you've made it through. And if you liked it, please feel free to leave me some feedback. :o)_

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